Let the sunshine in: We need Vitamin D more than ever

The sun's rays are even more essential to health than we thought. But how do you know if you're getting enough?

IT IS an annual ritual, as reliable as the spawning of frogs or the return of migrating birds. On the first sunny, warm day following winter, pale-skinned denizens of the high latitudes slough off excess clothing and expose their blanched bodies to the sun's rays.

Most of us love sunshine. Yet the standard health advice tells us to cover up and slather on the suncream for fear of developing skin cancer. That is still good advice, but the latest research suggests that sunshine – or rather the vitamin D it generates – may be more essential for health than we previously recognised.

Most people are familiar with the idea that extreme vitamin D deficiency causes rickets, a softening of the bones that can ...

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